Some Old Broads

Pat and Jean are anything but old broads but they like to tell people are. Their email handle, SOBIB, is an anagram for Some Old Broads In Business.

Pat

Jean

I met them in a campground in Monterey where they were staying in their motorhome, a 26’ Safari Trek, they bought new in ‘95. I am learning that people who own Safari Treks are much more a family than people who own other motorhomes in common. I mentioned I’d met a couple of people in Washington cruising in their Safari for 18 years and they said, “Oh, you mean Doug and Vera.”

These two gals are characters, hands-on operators of their coach. Pat built their Toad (took me weeks to figure out Toad is the generic name of any car being Towed). A ’64 VW bug with a slick paint job and a chromed, souped-up engine that Pat promises will drive up a wall.

You might wonder about the personal safety of a pair of 70-year old broads traveling alone across the country until you realize they hail from Arkansas and Texas. They carry a Mossberg pistol-grip shotgun, a nickel-plated 38 police special, and a palm-held 22. If you needed a bodyguard, you’d hire THEM.

Before I left them I asked if they’d like to meet some ROMEO’s. I took their widened eyes to be a YES so I told them there was a group of old sailors in Fort Lauderdale who met at a downtown diner for breakfast. They dubbed themselves the ROMEO club because they are Really Old Men Eating Out

They are a hoot, but did they trade an equally fine tip? No, I don’t see you following a holstered pair of women …. Before you part, pls tell them that a pair of men’s size 11 shoes tossed on the dashboard at night trumps a locker of guns. The road is about feeling free.

You can just imagine the story’s their grand children talk about them in school, I have a vision of grandma walking out of a saloon with a pair of cowboy boots wearing a 10 gallon and packing a holster.

Hey, we know Doug and Vera! They are amazing. They helped us get motivated to
buy our 2007 Trek. We love it. Need to use it more as we’ve been traveling in Europe
and Egypt lately. Hope to get to Florence, Oregon with it and then proceed through
California and onto Arizona. Say hi to them on the road for us! We just hooked up
with them and 17 other Treks around Halloween in Centralia, Washinton. What a
great bunch of folk. The NWTFC (Northwest Trek Fun Club).

When I first saw the subject line “Some Old Broads” I almost deleted the e-mail, put-off, yet wondering why, you chose these words. Finally, curiosity got me. Reading your story and learning that these two “old broads” chose that name, I had to chuckle, at the story and at myself.

I, too, am offended by the phrase when used dismissively. But, you can get away flippantly when these women turned on yourself, I had to laugh. I knew the title would be a risky attention-grabber for some and hoped that a combination of personal relationship and curiosity would prevail. I am so glad it did. AL

I MARINADE HERE IN AN APARTMENT-SIZE SPACE WHILE YOU LA-DI-DA DOWN THE ROAD ABSORBING THE MANY EXCITING ACQUAINTANCES AND NEW GEOGRAPHICAL VENUES. GOOD FOR YOU. I’M VERY FORTUNATE TO HAVE KNOWN YOU OVER THE YEARS. I STUDY SPANISH UNDER THE TUTELAGE OF A DELIGHTFUL ELDERLY COUPLE HERE WHO ONCE LIVED IN SAN JUAN. DON’T KNOW IF I WILL EVER BE CONVERSANT IN ESPANOL. TA TA

I MARINADE HERE IN AN APARTMENT-SIZE SPACE WHILE YOU LA-DI-DA DOWN THE ROAD ABSORBING THE MANY EXCITING ACQUAINTANCES AND NEW GEOGRAPHICAL AND PHILOSOPHICAL ACQUAINTANCES. BRAVO!! I’M FORTUNATE TO HAVE KNOWN YOU THESE MANY YEARS. I STUDY SPANISH WITH TWO WONDERFUL INSTRUCTORS. CLEAR AND INTERESTING ROADS AHEAD. BIG AL

After living aboard a 28-footer for a couple of months, an apartment seems so large to me that I hear echoes when I visit one. I has been fun so far and seems to promise getting nothing but better. And I can tell you land yachting is a whole lot simpler than sea cruising.